The Enigma of Sam Winchester’s Hair – Seasons 1 to 4
In picking what article to go out with before our Comic Con induced hiatus, there was one thing that was nagging me for so long it just could no longer be ignored. Pouring through all the clips and pictures of my vast collection, I set out to uncover the mystery. I’m talking about the enigma known as Sam Winchester’s hair.
Just like Sam, his hair has been wandering from place to place, never finding a real purpose in this world. We have to wonder if Dean’s consistent clean cut look and Sam’s ever changing mess is a reflection of the paths their characters have taken. Nah, I’m reading way too much into that. Still, hair doesn’t lie. Let’s go through the seasons and see if there’s any plausibility to that theory.
Season One
Pilot Hair
Not half bad. Sits nice, has a bit of wave, and definitely makes him look like the younger brother. A good way to kick off the series. It makes the statement, “I’m Sam, an ordinary guy, but I have a good idea of who I am.” Boy, does that change.
Wendigo Hair
Sam loses control fast. His lack of care could be blamed of grief, but all that’s needed here is common sense. By cutting the top shorter, the bangs are meant to hang down evenly now. Too bad they don’t! Plus, the top looks matted half the time, kind of like hat hair, and the sides look like they’re fighting each other, taking any direction they want. Sadly, this look sticks for a while.
Home Hair
This is the “Sam needs to fire his stylist” hair. The jagged layers flop on top in a disorganized clutter, there’s some sort of curly action going on in the back that’s hardly flattering and most of the episode it looks like he just got out of bed. Granted, both Jared Padalecki and Eric Kripke said in interviews for most of season one they had no idea who Sam really was. I guess they found the hair to match that. It still makes him look like a pup though.
Provenance Hair
Skipping forward a bit, Sam has indeed fired his stylist by this time because it doesn’t look like the hair has been cut all season. There’s one side effect to growing out the top layers like that. When he combs his hair (like on his date with Sarah), he looks like one of The Beatles, circa 1964. While the look works for comedic pleasure with Howard Wolowitz on The Big Bang Theory, here, um, no.
Devil’s Trap Hair
Yikes! He’s totally given up. I get that Sam’s face looks like he went a few rounds with a two by four, which he kind of did, but does the hair have to suffer too? Parts are flat and matted, one side flies away like he stuck his finger in a light socket and there’s no sign of even a vague attempt at style. Just get to a barber and at least do something about the split ends. Heck, use Dean’s machete. Anything!
Next page, Season Two, aka, the vast improvement.
My family is mostly Scots, Cornish and Welsh, in every generation someone gets THE hair! In this generation it is my daughter and my cousins son. THE hair is RED,SRONG WILLED,and RESISTANT!!! We call it celtic hair.
NO matter what products are used, NO matter the cut (or how much it costs), NO matter the means resorted to IT does its own thing and returns to the “styl” it wants!!!!
Believe me many have tried to tame it , ALL have failed!!
SO I am thinking that maybe Sam (Jared) has a similar heritage in being Eastern European (ie. Polish, lots of celts there too) and has THE hair for his generation? Just a thought.
Diane
I think his season 4 hair is great, and I also for the most part liked season 3. Season 2 was actually hit or miss for me, but by the end of the season all was good. Season 1 made him look 12. I have always pictured Dean religiously finding the nearest barber every six weeks and trying to get Sam to come along. Sam has to be the least vain tv character ever.
I have to agree that Heart was his best hair episode… but I like messy, untameable hair, so In My Time Of Dying is a close second… and Shadow.
Hi Alice! You just made me laugh my heart out with your comments about Sam’s hair!
I hate his season 1 hair, liked it in season 2, spend season 3 shouting for him to get a decent hair cut and liked it again in season 4. But I got to say that my favorite Sam’s hair is in BUABS and Heart.
I’m wonder what’s season 5 is going to do to his hair?…
Anyway, great as usual Alice 😀
Diane i know what you mean i have that hair no matter what you do it does what it please.
I think Sam’s hair is often hit and miss it’s because he has long hair and grows out leading to some interesting looks whereas with Dean’s short hair it’s hard for it to be flyaway or messy.
For me, my favourite ‘hair episode’ conincides with one of my favourite Sam performances: Born Under A Bad Sign. In particular, I call your attention to the scene where Sam has Jo tied up (I was actually hoping you’d include that screencap, Alice, but no matter). His hair looks really good there (no whispy bits, no funky wave). Maybe the demon liked to spend a little extra time in front of the mirror? And it didn’t hurt that Sam looked hot in that scene, too. Embarrassingly enough, it was the first time I remember wondering what it would be like to run my fingers through his hair.
But, all in all, who here can’t empathise when it comes to bad hair days?
Thanks for a fun post dedicated to the enigma that is Sam’s hair!
I must admit, I pretty much always love his hair, even when it looks terrible, but even I draw the line at the total “I just lost my jerky dad” hair meltdown in “Everybody Loves a Clown”:
http://caps.oxoniensis.org/caps/spn/202/spn202_0327.jpg
Alice,
I love your obsession with Sam’s hair, actually, it makes me ask the question of why the heck don’t they do something about it? Is it supposed to symbolize the confusion, restlessness, searching part of this character? (As stated above, how Dean’s is more military such as his approach and being a good soldier?) I really don’t know and occasionally it distracts (but usually only when I think about it really hard) Perhaps Sam’s hair is another character to the show, not quite on par with the Impala but, you know, somewhere????
Have a great, great, great time at the Con!!!! I’m busily working on some articles to fill up your box upon your return.
I wonder how Jared feels aobut his hair? Does Jared long to cut it, but he can’t because he has to keep Sammy hair? It’s probably not all that unmanageable for Jared, but the long days on the set in high humidity take a toll on his wavy hair.
I would love to read a humor fic where Dean finds Sam’s flat iron and gives him trouble about it! LOL!
I think my two favorite good hair moments would be BUABS (S2) and IKWYDLS (S4). Worst would be ELAC (bringing new meaning to the word flicky) and “No Rest for the Wicked” in which it was flat ironed to death and producted into stringly greasiness!
The only comfort it that when I have a bad hair day…I think of Sam! 😀
My hair never looks the same for 2 days in a row so I’ve given up expecting anything else from the damn stuff … It’s rather endearing that Sam’s top-hamper actually looks as if he lives on the road whilst Dean’s is suspiciously well groomed for someone who spends all his time fending off the forces of evil … I suspect he has another layer to the Impala’s Boot Of Bounty that’s just stuffed with industrial strenth hair products. 😆
I started to notice Sam’s hair more towards the end of season 1, actually it was the beginning of Salvation. It was raining and i know that while not everyone’s hair reacts as badly as mine to humidity I noticed Padalecki’s did. It was a little tamed on top, but the bottom puffed out a lot. It was also then I finally noticed his hair got longer. I have a thing for men in long hair, so as the series progresses and the awkwardness finally passed with his hair, it turned out looking pretty good. Especially when the bangs finally went bye bye.
In Born Under A Bad Sign, I think that Meg really helped him there. I really liked how well his hair looked during that episode. Aww there was nothing wrong with his hair in “Long Distance Call” to me it looked a hell of a lot more tamed then like… ever. Sure it looks a little too slick but it looked great. The feathered look also didn’t look bad at all. His hair in season 4 looks great too, finally trimmed in all the right places. Especially in “I Know What You Did Last Summer”
😀
wonderful post. loved the tongue-in-cheek humour and the pics (can never have too many piccies of the boys).
anyways, am i the only one who absolutely loved sam’s hair in imtod and elac? the flicky-out one? he looked like such an adorable little puppy with it.
also, agree that the buabs hair was smoking hot and the pic you use was just priceless. it really says something about your life when a alcoholic, chain-smoking pervert of a demon takes better care of your hair than you do.
*used*
sheesh
This had me rolling on the floor after reading your article… Sam has been given an award for best hair!
😮 No joke!
http://blogs.trb.com/network/cwsource/2009/08/the_sourcies_adore_these_luscious_locks.html#comments
Mmm, I’m actually deeply, deeply jealous of Padalecki’s hair. It’s… glorious. So rich and thick and there were several moments in Season 4 where I wanted to run my fingers through the strands, particularly where it adorably curls at the nape of his neck.
… Um.
But I am so glad you pointed out the atrocity that was his Season 1 hair – I’ve seen several people mention they miss it! The horror!
And yes, Sam’s hair does resemble one more accustomed to a life on the road, and you know, fighting forces of evil on the side… but hey. Why waste all the beautiful hair when you can’t style it properly?
(yes, I might be obsessed with Padalecki’s hair. Might.)
Season 4 is a huge improvement – it was probably at its very, very best in “Death takes a holiday”. I think Sam got a haircut in between Sex and Violence and DTAH, and god did the cut suit him or WHAT.
Wow, and here I thought I was the only one dangerously obsessed with Sam’s hair (I actually wrote up meta discussion on his hair in my LiveJournal). So glad to hear I’m in good company!
I thought his hair looked cute at certain times in season 1, and I even loved it in IMTOD and ELAC (the messy, flicky hair combined with the bruises on the face did it for me).
Gotta say though that I’m LOVING the hair in season 5 so far! Nice and long, but it’s got just a bit of layering on top and it’s not constantly slicked back and plastered down like it was in early season 4. I hope he keeps this look for a while. 🙂
One last thing, I linked to this article in my Sam’s Hair meta livejournal post, is that okay?
hello there! i guess my comment is a bit late, but I just found this blog! it’s EPIC!! and this elaboration on sam’s hair? Man, I had such a good laugh, thank you!! it is saved on my spn folder! 😛
keep up the great job!
cheers from Greece
Are you going to update this for season 5? It’s hair-larious! -RG
I hatehatehate it when Sam tucks his hair behind his ears!!! I don’t know whay, but i just dosn’t look /right/!
‘Heck, use Dean’s machete. Anything!’ LOL that cracked me up. I could imagine Sam cutting his hair with Dean’s machete. O.o
😆 yes i googled ‘sams hair’. to see if anyone else was troubled by the same thought. its seems so.
season 2 was definitely the best sam hair year others not so much.
Could you please, please contiue this wounderful list. There is now a season five and six and maybe a season seven!
PLEASE
I did! I wrote a season five Enigma of Sam Winchester’s hair last summer (link is below). It’s far more detailed and has categories! Season six’s will come out during Summer Hellatus. This will definitely be an annual tradition.
[url]https://www.thewinchesterfamilybusiness.com/article-list/category15/9523-the-season-five-engima-of-sam-winchesters-hair.html[/url]
This was a very amusing article, but I have to say that I love the Pada-hair in all its forms; yes even Everybody Loves a Clown hair 🙂 I loved the bangs from Season 1, all of the flips and flops. His hair has a life and a personality that adds an extra layer to the show (for me at least). Jared has said that he gets a hair cut at the start of every single episode. He just has a lot of life in his hair that is hard to control. Viva
Please get a hair cut… Seems like I am not the only one thinking this
Bite your tongue Heathen!! 🙂